Hearing on dualing North Haledon ethics complaints is postponed

NORTH HALEDON — A hearing of complaints that Mayor Randy George and his outspoken critic John Bleeker filed against each other has been postponed for two weeks.

The complaints originally were scheduled to be heard at 6:30 p.m. today during the regular meeting of the local Ethics Board. But the hearing was rescheduled when concerns were raised that the session might run into the 8 p.m. council meeting, said Renate Elatab, the borough administrator and clerk.

The new hearing date is 6 p.m. on March 18.

George said he hasn't heard from the board about the meeting date and whether he's expected to attend. "They haven't told me anything," he said.

He alleges in his complaint that Bleeker, a former firefighter, took a series of votes as councilman in the early 1990s that financially benefited Bleeker and his wife. George contends Bleeker should have recused himself.

Bleeker's complaint stems from George's use of two borough-owned generators during Superstorm Sandy to power his ice cream parlor on High Mountain Road. Bleeker says George violated the local government ethics law by using public property for private benefit.

A. Michael Rubin, the Wayne attorney hired by the ethics board to handle the cases, said he expects the start of the meeting to be open to the public, but that the board at some point will go into closed session.

He would not say whether an investigation into the complaints has already begun or when the matters are expected to be resolved because the ethics board's activities are confidential.

"People's reputations are at stake," Rubin said.

He said the board would hear the complaints, instead of referring them to the state Local Finance Board, as both George and Bleeker had requested.

The two men, once friends and both Republicans, have sparred over various issues, including the council's elimination of an annual stipend for volunteer firefighters; the closing of Bleeker's Fire Company 1 on Belmont Avenue; and borough-paid health insurance to the mayor and council members.

Bleeker filed criminal charges against George for his use of the generators, but the case was dismissed in municipal court last September.

Bleeker also criticized a June report by a municipal investigatory committee that cleared George of wrongdoing over his generator use. The Passaic County Prosecutor's Office announced in December it would not launch a criminal investigation into George's use of the generators based on the committee report.